Goldfinches and canaries are appreciated worldwide for their colourful appearance and their melodic whistling. The birds are especially popular in the Gaza Strip as they help to create a distraction from the hardships of daily life.

Munther Rashad Saleh al-Nakhala, 44, lives in Gaza city. He is widely known by his neighbours for his success in raising canaries and goldfinches and for the care and attention he shows them. At present, he owns more than 50 birds, and although they sell for up to 1,000 NIS in the Gazan market, he refuses to sell them. I have built special cages for them so I simulate their natural environment. They are very precious for me.

Munther enjoys hunting goldfinches and canaries with his green net and a small wooden cage. Four days a week for the last seven years, he has taken his bicycle to go hunting in the neighbouring areas of Gaza city. In the Gaza Strip, however, such a simple hobby has put his life at risk. On the morning of 31 January 2012, Munther was shot three times by Israeli soldiers.

Munther is not the only civilian injured by the Israeli soldiers in the border areas of the Gaza Strip. Last year 24 people, including 5 children, were killed and 203 people, including 9 children, were injured. All these incidents occurred in the so-called buffer zone.

Since Israels disengagement from the Gaza Strip in September 2005, Israeli forces have established a buffer zone, an area prohibited to Palestinians, along the land and sea borders of the Gaza Strip. The precise areas designated by Israel as buffer zones are unknown and changing. Israeli policy is typically enforced with live fire. At a minimum, the buffer zone is established at 300m from the land border, but it can extend to over 2km.

The establishment of a so-called buffer zone is illegal under and international law; there is no military necessity associated with the establishment of permanent closed military areas inside the Gaza Strip. This effective confiscation/seizure of property violates Article 23(g) of the Hague Regulations, and constitutes a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions.

Preventing Palestinians from access to their land violates numerous provisions of international human rights law, including the right to work, the right to the highest attainable standard of living, and the right to the highest attainable standard of health. Enforcing the buffer zone by means of live fire often results in the direct targeting of civilians, a war crime; killings under such circumstances constitute the crime of wilful killing a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions.

International donors pledged almost $4.5 billion in aid for Gaza earlier this month. It has been very painful for me to witness over the past few years the deteriorating humanitarian situation in that narrow strip where I lived as a child in the 1950s.

It is Hamas, an Islamist terror organization supported by Iran, which is using and abusing Palestinians... While Hamas leaders hid in the well-stocked bunkers and tunnels they prepared before they provoked Israel into attacking them, Palestinian civilians were exposed and caught in the deadly crossfire between Hamas and Israeli soldiers.

Both Israel and Egypt are fearful of terrorist infiltration from Gaza -- all the more so since Hamas took over -- and have always maintained tight controls over their borders with Gaza. The Palestinians continue to endure hardships because Gaza continues to serve as the launching pad for terror attacks against Israeli citizens. Those attacks come in the form of Hamas missiles that indiscriminately target Israeli kindergartens, homes and businesses.

And Hamas continued these attacks more than two years after Israel withdrew from Gaza in the hope that this step would begin the process of building a Palestinian state, eventually leading to a peaceful, two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There was no "cycle of violence" then, no justification for anything other than peace and prosperity. But instead, Hamas chose Islamic jihad. Gazans' and Israelis' hopes have been met with misery for Palestinians and missiles for Israelis.

Hamas, an Iran proxy, has become a danger not only to Israel, but also to Palestinians as well as to neighboring Arab states, who fear the spread of radical Islam could destabilize their countries.

Arabs claim they love the Palestinian people, but they seem more interested in sacrificing them. If they really loved their Palestinian brethren, they'd pressure Hamas to stop firing missiles at Israel. In the longer term, the Arab world must end the Palestinians' refugee status and thereby their desire to harm Israel. It's time for the 22 Arab countries to open their borders and absorb the Palestinians of Gaza who wish to start a new life. It is time for the Arab world to truly help the Palestinians, not use them.

Useful Searches

About USMessageBoard.com

USMessageBoard.com was founded in 2003 with the intent of allowing all voices to be heard. With a wildly diverse community from all sides of the political spectrum, USMessageBoard.com continues to build on that tradition. We welcome everyone despite political and/or religious beliefs, and we continue to encourage the right to free speech.

Come on in and join the discussion. Thank you for stopping by USMessageBoard.com!